§ Our Motto

'If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved, and to be steady on all the battlefield besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.?--Martin Luther

Friday, September 30, 2005

Bill Bennett & Abortion

There is currently a big flap about some comments by Bill Bennett that were lifted out of context. This is my initial reaction to this controversy.

If you think Bill Bennett said any of the following would you be right or wrong?

� Called blacks “human weeds”
� Said blacks were “menace to civilization.”
� believed that “social regeneration” would only be possible as the “sinister forces of the hordes of irresponsibility and imbecility” were repulsed.
� regard organized charity to ethnic minorities and the poor as a “symptom of a malignant social disease” because it encouraged the prolificacy of “defectives, delinquents, and dependents.”
� when the “choking human undergrowth” of “morons and imbeciles” would be segregated” and “sterilized.”
� goal was “to create a race of thoroughbreds” by encouraging “more children from the fit, and less from the unfit.”

All the above were the views of Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood

My view of this controversy is summed-up as follows:
“A text withourt a context is a pretext; usually for error.” Dr. Walter Martin

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Feinstein: Stuck on Stupid

Today, our wonderful, socialist, NIMBY, Liberal United States Senator was on the radio because she was grandstanding for the media by daring to lecture the petroleum industry about the price of gasoline.

Thou hypocrite! It is the fault of Senator Feinstein and her ilk that we are not an energy independent county. If she would allow new domestic drilling and exploration and a few new refineries to be built plus some new nuke plants, we would not need the tyrants of the Middle East.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Thanks Eric

From the middle of my junior year of high school until the end of my second year in college I lived in the South, mostly in Mississippi. My first year there, they had over 144 inches (twelve feet) of rain! The lifestyle and climate in the part of the country is very different from ours here in the Sacramento Valley.

The contrast between Mississippi and Louisiana has grown since my time there. Louisiana has not changed; it is still an area of graft, corruption and political cronyism. Mississippi was just starting to become a Republican area. It is proof the competitive elections will result in better government for citizens.

Besides the debris, the smell and the devastation that we hear about in the news coverage, there are a number of unpleasant critters in that part of the country that are living among the rubble. Three are at least three species of poisonous snakes and plus alligators that call Mississippi and Louisiana home.

Monday, September 19, 2005

Local Parish Wins More from Diocese of Los Angeles

This is follow-up story to a previous post that I made.

Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles must pay legal fees to Newport’s St. James, judge says.
By Lauren Vane Daily Pilot
September 16, 2005
An Orange County Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles must pay more than $81,000 in legal fees to St. James Church, the Newport Beach congregation that split from the diocese over a dispute about church doctrine.
The same judge, David Velasquez, ruled Aug. 15 to dismiss a lawsuit against St. James Church’s congregation that claimed the Newport Beach breakaway church’s property and assets belong to the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.
Velasquez ruled that efforts by the national church to retain the property of the seceding St. James congregation was an attempt to tread upon the congregation’s freedom of speech.
Praveen Bunyan, pastor of St. James, said the awarding of legal fees is another affirmation that the St. James Church was right from the beginning.
“This is a reiteration saying that the lawsuit was wrongfully brought against us,” Bunyan said.
Representatives from the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles did not return phone calls Friday.
Financially, Judge Velasquez’s ruling Thursday means that the church can apply funds toward “God’s mission,” Bunyan said.
“We’re glad that we can continue to concentrate on the mission that we believe as a church we are called to do,” Bunyan said.
The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles filed suit against St. James in September 2004 after the Newport Beach church and two other Southern California congregations broke away from the diocese and the Episcopal Church of the United States in protest of the national church’s positions.
After leaving the national church, St. James affiliated with the Diocese of Luwero in the Anglican province of Uganda, Africa. The Los Angeles diocese’s lawsuit alleged St. James’ property belongs to the national church, not to the congregation.
Although St. James Church is pleased with the awarding of legal fees, the church remains skeptical that the diocese will pay the legal fees without first appealing the decision, said St. James attorney Eric Sohlgren, in a statement released Thursday.
“I don’t know whether they will appeal,” Bunyan said. “Of course, we’ll continue to fight for what is ours.”

Friday, September 16, 2005

Nigerian Church Breaks with Canterbury

With a careful rewording of her constitution, the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) redefined her relationship with all other Anglican Churches.

All former references to ‘communion with the see of Canterbury’ were deleted and replaced with another provision of communion with all Anglican Churches, Dioceses and Provinces that hold and maintain the ‘Historic Faith, Doctrine, Sacrament and Discipline of the one Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church’.

Emphasis was also placed on the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer and the historic Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion.

The Constitutional change also allowed the Church to create Convocations and Chaplaincies of like-minded faithful outside Nigeria. This effectively gives legal teeth to the Convocation of Anglican Nigerians in Americas (CANA) formed to give a worshiping refuge to thousands in the USA who no longer feel welcomed to worship in the Liberal churches especially with the recent theological innovations encouraging practices which the Nigerians recognize as sin.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Starbucks Spends More on Healthcare than Coffee

Today, I heard Rush Limbaugh make the claim that Starbucks spends more on healthcare than they do on coffee. I just had to see if its true. Guess what? It Is!

Here’s the source; none other than Starbucks’ Chairman, Howard Schultz.

Q: What’s the biggest challenge you face in terms of meeting your objectives for growth?
A: Without a doubt, it’s health-care costs. We just had to raise our prices for the first time in four years. That is primarily because of the rising costs of health insurance and also dairy prices. Over the next two years, we will spend more for employee health-care costs than we will for coffee.

Anglican Church to Dump Queen & Archbishop of Canterbury

I was sent the following article today. It is worth reading.

Africans set to found rival Anglican Church

By TREVOR GRUNDY

AFRICANS say they have had enough of the Church of England’s endless discussions over the ordination of gay vicars and same-sex blessings. With help from their colleagues in Latin America, African primates, bishops, priests and laymen are getting ready to strike out on their own and establish a new Anglican Church based in Egypt.

A conference that could turn the Anglican community on its head takes place in Alexandria, Egypt, next month, organised by angry Africans and Latin Americans who say they are “sick and tired” of endless debate about same-sex blessings and the ordination of gay Christians. “We’ve had enough,” the Archbishop of Central Africa, Bernard Malango, said last week.

The Council of Anglican Provinces of Africa (CAPA) and the recently formed Council of Anglican Provinces of the Americas and Caribbean (CAPAC) will represent up to two-thirds of the world’s 77 million Anglicans.

In a new African-based Anglican community they plan to replace the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams as their spiritual leader with the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Jasper Akinola, and exclude homosexuals from full church life.

A leading gay vicar - who asked not to be named - said: “I fear for Rowan Williams if he attends the Alexandria Conference. Anglican dissidents will publicly announce that Archbishop Akinola is their new spiritual leader and that there is no place for the present Archbishop of Canterbury in the new community based in Alexandria.

“I also hear that African Anglicans plan to place a throne in a conference room and ask Archbishop Akinola to sit in it - while Dr Williams is supposed to stand by and watch.

“Where will that leave the man, and where will that leave the Queen, who is head of the Church of England?”

CAPA’s members include the Anglican dioceses of Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Egypt. It was formed in July at Nassau after Latin American Christians expressed their bitterness towards the Church of England, saying it was prevaricating on the subject of gay rights and same-sex blessings - 300 of which take place in England every year.

“We were inspired by CAPA,” says Drexel Gomez, Archbishop of the West Indies. He predicts “a shattering split in the entire worldwide Anglican community” following the Church of England’s approval of the Civil Partnership Act that comes into force in December.

There are about 13,900 clergy in the Church of England, which is facing slumping attendance and widespread indifference - even though some 25 million people in the UK are nominal members.

Africans have been watching what seems to be growing tolerance by the Church of England towards gays with alarm and deep anger.
Anglicans in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Egypt say that when eight Church of England bishops supported the Civil Partnership Act in the House of Lords they flouted the rules of the worldwide Anglican community.

Since then, Akinola has called for the suspension of the Church of England. “I believe that the temporary suspension of the Church of England is the right course of action to take.”

Akinola says that he is disappointed with the example that Williams is setting by appearing to condone the Civil Partnership Act and he advises Anglicans to steer clear of the leadership of Lambeth Palace.

“Lambeth Palace upholds our common historic faith and it will now lose that place of honour in the world.”

In a pastoral statement issued in August, English bishops said that they would allow gay clergy to register their partnerships, as long as they abstained from sex.

Akinola asked: “Is the Church of England planning to install cameras in the bedrooms of its clergy?”

However, Richard Kirker, general secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, said: “Personally, I’d rather see a split within the ranks of the Anglican community than for people of principle to bow to the demands of homophobic Africans.”

Some Anglican churches in Africa are turning away funds from US and Canadian churches because of their tolerance of active gays in the church.

And a vicar from London has been asked by Archbishop Malango to clarify his views before being consecrated as Bishop of Lake Malawi.

The Rev Nick Henderson has two parishes in west London and Malango asked him to confirm that he subscribes to the Creed, the Bible and the Thirty-Nine Articles and “fashions his own life and his household according to the doctrine of Christ”.

Until recently, he was chairman of the Modern Churchpeople’s Union, which is a leading liberal forum for “open and informed theological comment in the Church of England and the Anglican Communion”.

Henderson is unmarried and shares his vicarage with a male lodger, who is organist at one of his churches. In a letter to Henderson, Malango said: “It has been reported that you currently live with a male lodger. Because of reports of your advocacy of the gay and lesbian movement, I am constrained to ask a very awkward question.”

Henderson was asked if he believed sexual intimacy should be restricted to within the marriage of one man and one woman. “Is there anything I should know that would make my work difficult if you took up this position?” asked the archbishop.

Henderson was not available for comment and Lambeth Palace is - for the time being - keeping quiet about the seriousness of a looming split.

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Newdow is Back

Michael Newdow is back! After failing to get the Pledge of Allegiance banned from Elk Grove’s public schools last year because he lacked standing in the courts, he has brought a new suit on behalf of others.

Sunday, September 11, 2005

A Prayer in Time of Terrorism

I was sent this e-mail September 11, 2001

Grant, O God, that in this time of national testing, thy people may know
thy presence and obey thy Will: that with integrity and courage we may
accomplish all that which thou would have us to do, and to endure that
which thou would ask us to bear;

Pour out, O merciful Lord, thy aid and comfort to all who those who at
this time are visited with tragedy and bereavement; and prosper with
thy continual blessing all those those who administer the healing gifts
to the injured and those who labor to devise protection against
fanatical terrorist attacks.

Grant, O Lord, the execution of righteous judgment against those
responsible for this evil, that justice might be done in this world and
in the life to come..

Finally, O Lord, we pray that thou would convert and turn the hearts of
our enemies, who by the hardening of their hearts, know not what evil
they do.

This we ask through Him who both healed and hallowed suffering, thy Son
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Thoughts on Chief Justice John Roberts

It is a strange confluence of events that has lead to John Roberts being elevated from a nominee to Associate Justice to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Think about it. At least four separate events have all occurred to elevate this situation to the �critic mass� necessary to put Roberts in this situation. First was the announced retirement of Sandra Day O�Connor. Second was the selection of John Roberts to fill this vacancy. Third was the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. And fourth was the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

This has resulted in Roberts getting the nod for the Chief spot to insure continuity of leadership such as it is in the Court. I suspect that he will leave most on the existing staff in tact for him first term on the high court.

I am curious why Rehnquist chose to hold on to his spot until the very end. Did he have no other reason keep going other than his work? Was he a good soldier and trying to make it easier for President Bush to fill the existing vacancy? Did he have any issues or concerns about Roberts (who was one of his former clerks)?

Anyway, the whole situation is a good example of how Calvinists view the governance of Christ. God is in control and brings his will to pass in time and space; here not just in the hereafter. Yes, this would mean that Roberts would be God�s choice—if in fact he is confirmed.

In fact all government leaders are in office at the pleasure of the Almighty. Some we view as �good� and are thankful for their time in office but I don�t understand why God allows Nero or Napoleon or Hitler or Stalin. Others seem somewhere in between.

I have faith that Roberts is one of the �good� guys and will help turn our country towards laws and values that honor God. The Court has long been the institution most responsible for pouring-out God�s wrath and judgment on our nation. Perhaps when the Court is reconstituted it can be a vessel for healing our nation.

Friday, September 02, 2005

Hurricane Comments

I have been quiet about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina on this blog.

I did call the Feed the Children number at 1-888-58-CHILD today. They were professional, courteous and quick. I was able to go through the whole process of donating in about a minute.

My only additional comment on the aftermath is that the screeches of local politicians are way out of line. If they want blame then get a mirror. Louisiana politics has been one of the most corrupt and incestuous in the nation for decades. Single Party rule inhibits leadership and accountability.

In New Orleans, local officials had a near scare about this very scenario last year during hurricane season. The mayor and governor are the first and second lines of preparedness and they failed to plan.

Compare Rudy Giuliani and his reaction to 9-11 with mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans and his failure to lead his city. This politician is a failure as a man and a leader. Barney Fife would be an upgrade for this community in crisis.